German Patent DE 35 43 558 C2 discloses an optical module comprising the features of the preamble of claim 1. In this module, the light arriving in an optical fibre is coupled to a photodetector, which is expediently connected to an amplifier immediately downstream. The optical fibre and photodetector are coupled via an optical deflecting element and mounted on a carrier element, which consists of single crystal semiconductor material such as silicon.
Devices like those described in the cited German Patent require costly fabrication processes as the carrier is made of semiconductor material.